Against all Odds
by Silver6
Summary: Slash! Sequel to 'If Only You Knew' Oliver and Vincent have finally got together, but it’s not particularly easy for them. The couple have many challenges to overcome before they can truly be together. Will their love be able to last that long?


**A/N: **A sequel to 'If Only You Knew'. I suggest you read that first before starting on this one. We are around about May of Harry's 2nd Year, roughly three months after Vincent and Oliver got together.

**Summary: **Oliver and Vincent have finally got together, but it's not particularly easy for them. The couple have many challenges to overcome including Vincent's homophobic controlling father, Marcus Flint's attempts to destroy their relationship and Oliver's jealousy. Will their love be able to last despite the odds? 

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Harry Potter, Hogwarts or anything else linked to the books. They all belong to J. K. Rowling. I'm just borrowing them to mess around with. Vincent, Sol-leks and Damon all belong to me, as does this story.****

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Can Love Last? 

(Vincent's POV)

I'm not sure when things started going wrong between Oliver and I. I mean, we got together and although a few people made comments, most people soon came to accept us, so there was no problem there. I hadn't actually told my father about us just yet, I'd only seen him once since the night we started 'going out' and I'd put off telling him because I knew he'd go mad. When I lived with him, he did everything he possibly could to stop me getting near girls, even to the point of keeping me inside all the time. And he was completely homophobic too; I knew that he would never accept Oliver. But even that wasn't a major problem. I didn't live with my father and I rarely saw him, so he didn't really have the right to say who I could and could not spend time with. No, if I'm honest, I think the big problem was Oliver's jealousy.

Sounds funny when I put it like that, I know. I mean he was the one who has more than half of the population of Hogwarts lusting after him, where people liked me but not quite to that extent. It should have been me who was jealous, not him. But I think, after all the hassle we went through trying to get together in the first place, the poor guy was terrified that I was going to leave him. 

We had many conversations about it. I tried to reassure him that I loved him and that I would never leave him. It always ended the same way, with him promising to back off a bit, but he never did. He stuck with me all the time and it began to get difficult to shake him off. Since we played Quidditch together, were in the same dorm and had most of the same lessons, we were together all the time. If I asked him to give me some space, he would say that I didn't want him any more and that I obviously liked someone else. If I spoke to another person, particularly a boy, he would accuse me of flirting with them. It got to the point where it was just completely ridiculous. I felt like I was a prisoner. And yet it never once crossed my mind to leave him. I knew Oliver lacked confidence in himself and I figured that was why he acted the way he did. I wanted to help him, not leave him. Besides, I loved him. 

It was Professor Snape who made me see that something had to be done. He pulled me aside one day after class and told me that my good friend and room mate, Damon had been to see him and told him that he was worried about me. Snape said that he had noticed that I hadn't been myself lately and that I seemed worried about something. At his encouragement, I told him what was happening between Oliver and I and asked for his advice. 

Snape said a lot of good things about relationships and love, things that many students would have been surprised to hear him say. But he told me that I had to talk to Oliver and tell him that he couldn't keep trying to control me. He also pointed out that I was a human being and I had rights like everyone else and no one had the right to take them away from me. After talking with him, I felt so much better and I knew that I had to talk to Oliver soon.

It wasn't an easy conversation for either of us. We sat down outside and I told him that although I loved him very much I needed my own space too, not because I didn't love him, but because I did love him and it was unhealthy for us to spend so much time together. Just to make sure he understood, I told him that I knew it was difficult for him and I was prepared to help him as much as I could but that if he didn't start controlling his jealousy and letting me have a bit of space of my own, he was going to lose me. 

As I expected, he apologized for upsetting me, told me how much he loved me and swore that he'd try his very best. I, in turn, promised that we'd still spend a lot of time together, just not all the time. He agreed and we kissed and everything was okay again.

Surprisingly, although I had had my doubts that Oliver would do it, over the next week or two, he seemed to be getting better. He'd backed off a bit and when we were together, he wasn't accusing me so we didn't spend all our time arguing. Damon mentioned that we both seemed happier, as did Snape. And I was glad. It seemed that Oliver trusted me in the same way that I trusted him. All I had to worry about now was how to tell my father about us. At least, I thought that was all. But I hadn't reckoned on Marcus Flint trying to ruin everything as usual.

Admittedly, Marcus Flint is one of those guys I just couldn't figure out. He hated Oliver, believe me, I could see it in his eyes. And he disliked me too, partly because I was a Gryffindor and partly because I could and I would stand up to him. He was like most bullies, he could handle picking on someone who wouldn't fight back but when someone like me came along and humiliated him in front of his peers and the people he bullies, he couldn't handle it. But although I've never openly mentioned anything to Oliver, for obvious reasons of course, I've always had the suspicion that Flint fancied me and that his anger and his desire to hurt me was based on the fact that he knew he'd never have me. 

He did things like brushing against me when he didn't have to and whispering things in my ear, stuff like how I could do better than Oliver and that I didn't belong with a lousy Gryffindor, I needed a Slytherin if I wanted a really passionate relationship. I had to sit next to him in a couple of my lessons and a couple of times he put his hand on my leg. Once he came up behind me, grabbed me around the waist and kissed the back of my neck. I told him to get lost, using unrepeatable words, but he just laughed.

I told him once that my relationship with Oliver was none of his business and never would be. Our relationship wasn't really based on passion, since we were both young and inexperienced in such matters, but more on friendship, understanding and love. I knew which I would rather have any day. But it was a challenge to Flint, you see. He was trying to see how far he could push me. I probably could have gone to Snape or Dumbledore, but I thought that I could handle it. I briefly warned Oliver that Flint was sort of harassing me, so that he wouldn't get the wrong idea if he did see Flint grab me, and left it at that. I figured that Flint would finally get tired and leave me alone. I was wrong. Instead, he decided to take it one step further…


End file.
